The Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), says it will continue to apply zero tolerance to money laundering, terrorism and proliferation of weapons financing obligations.
The Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, said this at the first quarter post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Yuguda said that SEC had informed Capital Market Operators (CMOs) about the new Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations and guidelines.
He said the guidelines mandated CMOs to comply with stringent reporting obligations in their dealings.
Yuguda, however, assured investors that interests of minority shareholders would be protected in all transactions in the capital market.
This, he said, followed the decision of Oando Plc to delist from the Nigerian Exchange Ltd (NGX).
He noted that protecting the interests of both majority and minority shareholders was the primary responsibility of the commission.
“Protection of investors is the central mandate of the commission and when the commission protects investors, we do not discriminate between minority and majority shareholders.
“When there is a case of delisting, the application for the delisting comes to the commission.
”We go through it very carefully to ensure that the shares of the company being delisted are fairly valued because fair valuation is what protects all the shareholders,” he said.
Yuguda said SEC was working at ensuring that foreign and retail investors were retained and more attracted to the capital market.
He said that the NGX had performed well when put side by side with other markets in the continent.
